Loveland Police Department loses almost 130 years of experience with four retirements

Mentorship program in development designed to fill void, offer promotion opportunities

By Madeline Novey/Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Posted:
08/29/2011 09:40:52 PM MDT

Four men. Almost 130 years of service. Countless contributions.

This is, in simplest terms, what the Loveland Police Department is without since Ron Andersen, Joe Berdin, Raeburn Bontz and Greg Eisentraut retired, one by one each year since 2006.

Acknowledging the loss of collective institutional knowledge the retirements represent, Loveland Police Department Chief Luke Hecker and his staff are developing a succession plan to prepare the next generation of leaders.

The following are only short snippets of each man's career in law enforcement. But their stories mesh into one another and again into those of the men and women who came before them, thus helping write the history of the department as a whole.

Ron Andersen

Andersen knew he wanted to be a police officer before he graduated from Loveland High School in 1969.

"I think it's the same reason people play Cowboys and Indians," he said, seated at a table in the Reporter-Herald newsroom one morning in June. He wore a denim shirt praising him for "35 years Well Done" with the Loveland Police Department.

Years ago, late-night TV offered up a buffet of police shows. He often tuned into "The Naked City" and "Highway Patrol," and very little of an officer's work sounded routine, he said.

So, after attending Colorado State University, Andersen signed on with the Loveland Police Department as a patrol officer. The day was April 5, 1976. He remembers it without a falter.

A couple of years later, then-Chief Lawrence Sieb scouted for a polygraph and reader. Fort Collins police had them, so why not Loveland?

An analytical man with a knack for charts, Andersen volunteered, and Seib sent him to training.

The polygraph hasn't changed much in 30-plus years, he said, except for the computer components. In the end, it all comes down to the examiner.

A year after that, Andersen decided to try his hand at crime scene investigation.

Back then, there wasn't much training.

"The guy that did it showed the new guy the ropes," he said.

He typically worked a scene from the "outside in, so nothing's disturbed." He'd take photographs and lift fingerprints, and gather opinions from other law enforcement officers.

"CSI? I can't hardly stand to watch it," he said. It's not an accurate depiction of the work.

Born and raised in Loveland, Andersen was also a member of the original SWAT team and worked with the hazmat team, as a Loveland Fire and Rescue volunteer and with Loveland Dive and Rescue.

Andersen was hard-pressed to pinpoint his fondest memory. His fellow officers were his extended family. And he certainly remembers the practical jokes.

But at 59, he said, it became harder to keep up with more physically aggressive criminals and pull his weight on the streets.

"There's a policy there," at the department. "If you're a police officer, you're a police officer."

Joe Berdin

Measuring in at 5-foot-5 3/4 inches, a young Berdin was sure he was too short for police work.

Back in the 1960s, state officers had to stand 5-foot-10 and city officers at 5 feet, 8 inches.

Nonetheless, he abandoned the notion of corporate law and studied law enforcement at Trinidad State Junior College.

In 1971, he worked a three-year stint as an officer in Berthoud, then moved to Texas, where he worked as an EMT and, in 1977, got into the police reserves. Finally, in February 1978, the Loveland Police Department hired the Loveland High School graduate.

And, as he says, the rest is history.

When he started as a patrol officer, Loveland was home to about 20,000 residents, as compared with its current population of more than 68,000.

Over the years, Berdin and others inspired state-- and national-level implementation of law-related education for ninth-graders. He was at one point put in charge of the Loveland Police Reserves, and was one of the first six or seven with the original SWAT team, then called the Emergency Service Unit.

He was a part of Loveland Dive and Rescue and the accident technical team, which investigates fatal accidents. And he worked as radar instructor and a field-training officer for 20 years.

The deaths of three teenagers driving drunk in the mid-1990s drove Berdin to implement the city's and state's first keg-tag program. Later, he and other officers also worked with Loveland establishments with liquor licenses to undergo voluntary training to reduce violence and tragedy as a result of alcohol.

Sitting by the window on the second floor of the Reporter-Herald, Berdin said he's seen "more dead people than anyone ought to see" and compared the shot he took in the 1989 River House incident with someone taking a hammer to his shoulder.

He wiped tears from his cheeks as he talked about his close friends in the department who were always there for him.

"Your life, another person's, depends on one another," he said. "You grow together, depending on them."

But for him, getting out of the job and away from the tragedy was a no-brainer.

Instead, he will play golf, gamble in Las Vegas and watch the Eagles. And, he'll catch up with his family.

"I missed the first half of their life. I don't want to miss the second," he said.

Raeburn Bontz

Bontz got into the police business by accident.

In 1971, his girlfriend-turned-wife had a friend who was dating a Denver police officer who invited him on a ride-along.

It only took seven or eight calls for him to know.

"It just hit me as something I might be able to do," Bontz said while on a lunch break from his new work with the Loveland Courthouse Records Department.

Having worked in Loveland at Johnson's Corner as a gas station attendant and later at Vickers in Longmont, Bontz started applying for jobs in law enforcement and got hired on with the Denver Police Department as a patrol officer in 1972.

Then, after six years and nine months with police departments in the Denver area and Nebraska, Bontz went to work for a grocery store.

"I came to the realization that this (policing) was what I was supposed to be doing," he said. He started with the Loveland Police Department in 1983.

For some time, Bontz worked in the detectives unit as a questioned document examiner.

That means he was the one to compare writing samples with seemingly fishy ones, say on forged deeds, checks or liens.

Eventually, he enjoyed worked as a training sergeant and booked conferences, flights and classes for police staff.

The fact that Loveland is a great place to work has kept Bontz in town, and though the city is not crime-free, it's different than the likes of Denver and Aurora.

"The city's been really good to me over the years," he said.

Bontz was not actively searching for a new job when he came across the position in records. Several of the guys in the department had talked for a while about impending retirement, and his philosophy was simple: "At one point, you reach a time when you know it was time to go."

Greg Eisentraut

Like Berdin, Eisentraut is rare in that he was involved in a shooting while serving the people of Loveland.

One night, Eisentraut contacted a fleeing bank robber. When the robber opened fire, Eisentraut responded as the expert marksman that he was, Chief Luke Hecker said.

"Every policeman trains for that day ... the day he comes under fire," Hecker said. "Not only did he respond, but he responded with precision."

Eisentraut did not wish to interview with the Reporter-Herald for this story.

Searches for Eisentraut in the Reporter-Herald archives reveal he started his career with the Loveland Police Department at its old location at 410 E. Fifth St. in 1978.

From there, he worked as an officer and eventually worked as sergeant of Community Resources, Hecker said. Plaques recognizing good service that hang in the lobby of the new building, 810 E. 10th St., bear Eisentraut's name.

True to his nature, Eisentraut was ready to retire this past winter but stayed until the last day of school in May to train his replacement.

"That's just the way he was," Hecker said. "Always willing to help out."

In their stead

With the loss of the four men and their collective institutional knowledge, Hecker and his staff started in January to develop a succession plan "to prepare the next generation of leaders."

In September, Sgt. Jameson Gartner will attend the "Leadership Journey," taught by Loveland Fire and Rescue Chief Randy Mirowski. From there, Gardner will go back to the department with ideas to create a police-centric mentorship program for which employees will train under supervisors to manage shifts and direct decisions.

Classroom sessions could offer participants opportunities to interact with the department's sworn and civilian managers to understand their role as it relates to the overarching mission, learn to manage budgets and how the police interact with city staff and the greater community, Hecker said.

At this point, Hecker said, the ideal launch of the 11-week program would be the first quarter of 2012, so employees can work toward promotion.

Voluntary, the mentorship program won't guarantee a promotion but will increase likelihood.

"The men and women of this department are hungry for upward mobility," Hecker said. And how many take that route depends on their appetite.